Which brings me to my friend Kevin Williamson, who was fired from
his new job at The Atlantic almost before he
could figure out how to work the coffee machine. Ironically, he was
hired for the same reason he was fired. He has strong opinions and
he expresses them very well. Jeffrey Goldberg (no relation)
courageously hired Kevin because he wants his magazine to be a
public square for different points of view. Goldberg is also
fascinated with “homeless conservatives” in the era of Trump. Kevin
is a critic of the president — even more so than me. He is also
fluent in cultural idioms that few elite journalists have the
foggiest acquaintance with, by virtue of his humble origins and
peripatetic career. Goldberg rightly believed Kevin’s voice would
enrich and enliven the pages of The Atlantic (which, by the
way, I still think is an excellent magazine, for now).

The Woke Mob thought otherwise from the get-go, as they always do in
these circumstances. Indeed, before we talk about the specifics of
Kevin’s situation, it must be pointed out that whenever a
conservative or libertarian is hired outside the conservative
ghetto, the response is like that of Dutch Dominicans watching
Napoleon’s forces convert their church into a horse barn. The
excuses for why this or that writer is unacceptably extreme vary
with the writer. But the reaction is always the same, if not in
degree then in form.

I will have to take Jonah's assertion that the Atlantic is an
"excellent magazine" on faith. I'm
still
steamed
from their
2006
article about inequality with a
dishonest
graphic using one of the techniques
Darrell Huff described in his 1952 book How to Lie With
Statistics.

Two parts of the upcoming 2020 federal Census have gotten a lot of
people upset. First, it will ask people if they're U.S. citizens.
Second, it will not ask people if they're gay, bisexual, or
transgender.

In all likelihood, there's an overlap: People upset about one are
upset about the other, despite the contradiction. That's because
they care about the Census to the extent that the answers to the
questions can be used to control and influence government. Matt
Welch has
noted correctly that asking about citizenship is a deliberate
effort to undercount illegal immigrants in order to alter the
Congressional district map landscape in ways that will be more
friendly to Republicans. Democrats and progressives are definitely
not happy about that.

For the LGBT question, the exact opposite is happening: People who
want a head count of gays and transgender people believe the data
will then be valuable in influencing federal policies and spending
on projects that benefit LGBT people—or, more accurately, to benefit
certain LGBT organizations.

At least the citizenship question informs a relatively direct government
interest.

We'll take Kevin D. Williamson prose anywhere we can find it, and
that includes Commentary. He writes on the new
Roseanne show in
Class
Acts.

The politics are, as one would expect, pretty shallow. Metcalf’s Jackie shows up wearing a pussy hat and a “Nasty Woman” T-shirt, while Roseanne explains that she was attracted to Trump because “he talked about jobs,” as though that were something unusual in a presidential candidate. (One of the most maddening aspects of American political discourse is politicians’ insistence on talking about jobs as though they were ends rather than means. We don’t have farmers so that people living in rural areas can have incomes and something to do all day—we have farmers so that we can have food.) The show promises to touch on health care, aging, opioid abuse, and other highly marketable social issues. The Conner family is now multiracial and includes one gender-nonconforming member, and it soon will “have a different culture moving in next door,” as Barr puts it.

Our Google LFOD alert rang for the admission from ex-candidate Mark
Hounsell. When it comes to Congress, Hounsell claims,
I
can’t get there from here.

The threat of a growing federal/central government pushed by the
liberal agenda of current leaders of the democratic [sic]
party is very real. Their blatant and unabashed attempts to buy New
Hampshire’s first Congressional District with out-of state money is
an obvious clear and present danger to our “Live Free or Die”
Granite State.

What is alarming is that despite the appeals of NH GOP Chairman Jeanie
Forrester to make New Hampshire Red Again, the factionalized Republican
Party in this state is hogged [sic] tied by right wing
extremists, passing as conservatives. As a result, many unaffiliated
independent moderate voters have no reason to feel needed or welcomed to
vote Republican this November for NH CD-1. There currently is no
candidate for Congress who emulates our successful Governor Sununu in
his genuine moderation from his honest conservative character. That is a
real problem for the GOP.

Hounsell (it appears) has a complex set of litmus tests to
distinguish between "conservatives", "right wing extremists", and
those exhibiting "genuine moderation". That might be interesting to
hear more about. Or not.

Portsmouth, New Hampshire hasn’t been widely thought to be a hotbed
of crypto activity. It just might be, and it probably has something
to do with the Free State Project (FSP). Yale doctoral student Jason
Sorens basically wrote about a secessionist movement of the most
personal sort. It wound up evolving into asking 20,000
freedom-loving people to build a political force in the state of New
Hampshire, the “Live Free or Die” state. “A large portion of the
people who moved to New Hampshire in search of freedom are bitcoin
users,” Derrick J. Freeman explained.
“That’s because they know about the Federal Reserve. Once you know
about that, and you know there’s an alternative, it’s pretty hard to
reconcile your personal responsibility for its perpetuation.”

I had some free time before attending
the
C. J. Box book signing in
downtown Portsmouth last night, so wandered by the "Shoppe". It was
closed, but it looks neat. The real estate in that part of town is
astronomical, so I guess they're doing OK.

New Hampshire is a funny, marginally governable place. Consider
Australia. It takes up a whole continent and has nearly 20 times the
population of the Granite State, yet it has only 226 lawmakers. New
Hampshire, which is 317 times smaller than Australia, has 424
legislators plus five executive councilors whose job is to guard the
public purse.

States of old had forts and guard houses on their borders. New Hampshire has liquor stores, plus liquor mega-stores at its toll booths. If New Hampshire had a state tool it would be a corkscrew.

So really, is New Hampshire’s state motto Live Free or Die, or Live Free and Die Laughing?

Sigh. This is why Concord Monitor editorialists won't be
advancing to the Saturday Night Live writer pool anytime soon.

And, not that it matters, but a onetime co-worker claimed that Sarah
Silverman still owes him from a pot deal back in high school. Sarah, if
you're reading this, you know what the right thing to do is.

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Atlantic editor Jeffrey Goldberg confirmed in a statement Thursday that the magazine and internet outlet has discovered and successfully patched a leak in its echo chamber that had apparently been there for about two weeks.

“It was a dicey situation. We were exposed for a short while to a dissenting opinion on a social issue, which is unacceptable, and could have wreaked havoc on our homogeneous corporate culture,” Goldberg said in his statement. “We want to thank the frenzied and ruthless social media mob for bringing the abnormality to our attention—it has been successfully dealt with.”

“Homeostasis has been restored,” Goldberg added, his words echoing loudly and repeatedly off the inner walls of the chamber as the rest of the Atlantic staff cheered and hugged.

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